Treated wood for use in electric storage batteries.



B. HBAP.

TRBATED WOOD I OR USE IN ELECTRLO STORAGE BATTERIES.

Imam

APPLICATION FILED JULY 3, 1912.

Patented Sept. 16, 1913.

gigs l" y UNiTEB STATE PATENT OlWiQE. y' i BENJAMIN I-IEAP, OF CLIFTON JUNCTION, NEAR MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE ELECTRIC STORAGE BATTERY COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYL- VANIA, A CORPORATION 0F NEW JERSEY.

TREATED WOOD FOR USEIN ELECTRIC STORAGE BATTERIES.

Lorain.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Original application led October 27, 1908, Serial No. 459,687. Divided and this application led July 3,

T 0 all whom i may concern Be it known that I, BENJAMIN HEAP, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and residing at Clifton Junction, near Manchester, England, have 4invented certain new and useful Improvements in Treated Wood for Use vin Electric Storage Batteries, of which the following is a specification.

lVooden separators are an example of the use of wood in electric storage batteries. Provided that wood has been deprived of certain of itsconstituents its presence in a storage battery is desirable since it has the 'effect of increasing the capacity of the negative pole plates, especially if they are somewhat worn out, without deleteriously affecting the positive pole plates, and furthermore it is an excellent material from which to make separators. Treatments to which wood was subjected prior to my invention to it it for use in storage batteries lett the wood in such condition that it had to be kept wet in order to prevent it from warping, shrinking, cracking and the like, and to keep the wood Wet was objectionable and made it awkward to store, ship and handle the wooden separators.

The object of the present invention isv to overcome the difliculty, expense and ahoyance ot keeping treated wood separators wet and to provide treated wooden separators dry, straight and sound.

The invention, stated in general terms, comprises a dry, straight, sound wooden separator having its natural structure and containing its cellulose and fibrous constituents and 'constituting an imperforate diaphragm impervious to battery sediment and primarily deprived of such of its constituents as would'deleteriously attack lead when subjected to electrolytic action and retaining such of its constituents as benelicially .f1-dect a negative pole plate; or in other words, a wooden separator of the general type described in. Letters Patent No. 1,000,330, but characterized by the fact that 1912. Serial No. 707,627.

though dried it is sound and straight and not warped or split or cracked, and can be exposed to the air indefinitely like ordinary untreated wood without injury to it of any kind.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1, is aA plan and Fig. 2, an elevational View of a wooden separator.

In the drawings I' have illustrated one Patented Sept. 16, 1913er.

type of wood separator a, shown as grooved at l), upon one side only, but itmay he grooved on both sides or flat on one or both sides. The drawing also illustrates the fact that the separator, when dry, after treatment is sound and straight. One way of making a dry, straight, sound, treated wooden separator is described in my pen-ding application, Serial No. 459.687, ot' which A this application may be regarded asa division intended to cover broadly the product without limiting it to that process. The application above referred to eventuated in Letters Patent- No. 1,051,580, of January 28th, 1913, and, generally stated, covers the process of treating wood to iit it for use in connection with Stora ge battery plates which consists in digesting or soaking it in an alcoholic solution of a suitable extractive reagent, washing the wood so treated in alcohol, and drying the washed wood. That I claim is: A

A dry, straight, sound wood separator having 'its cellulose and fibrous constituents and constituting an imperforate diaphragm impervious to battery sediment and primarily deprived of such of its constituents as would deleteriously attack lead when subjected to electrolytic action and retaining such of its constituents as beneficially affect a negative pole plate.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name. BENJAMIN HEAP. Witnesses JAS. STEWART BnoADrooT, H. R. KrrsoN. 

